Duke Spring 2016 ABSN

[Sunshinexoxo1991]

Hi all!

I'm applying to Duke for the Spring 2016 ABSN cohort as well as other universities. I have done a lot of research on Duke and acceptance, but I was wondering if I could ask an opinion of any of the current Duke ABSN students or Duke alumni.

My question is, I know that letters of recommendation are weighted heavily, but how much extra weight does it hold if I have a letter of recommendation from a Duke faculty member? I'd rather not disclose who exactly, but it's a faculty member of Duke's school of medicine. Obviously, it won't hurt to have this letter, but I was wondering if Duke will see this as just another good letter of rec, or if they will see this as more since it's from "one of their own"?

Thanks for any feedback, it is all appreciated! :)

[vandydani]

I honestly disagree with everything said by JuanMartin. I wanted to give my perspective as an alum so that you all are not dissuaded by his review. I attended Duke and graduated in May of 2015.

1) Graduating from Duke gives you a tremendous edge in and outside of the Duke system. I was accepted to several jobs in several states and ended up at a competitive pediatric residency program as one of 12 nurses of 300 interviewed. My education at Duke prepared me for that interview and gave me an edge on the market.

2) The faculty are amazing. I still keep in touch with my professors because they went above and beyond to not only teach and facilitate learning, but also to personally assist every student. I received recommendation letters, one-on-one mentoring and counseling about the future, mock interviews, etc. They were all professional, kind, and helpful.

3) In terms of NCLEX pass rate, Duke is at 99% basically they prepare you so well that the people that do not pass were either not following the study plans or took the test when they should not have. Personally, a national pass rate of 89% means nothing if the school's pass rate is not up to par. Duke's is near perfect.

4) I do agree that the students are driven and above average. That's another reason I chose to go to Duke over community college. I wanted to be around people with a passion for nursing and a drive to succeed. I didn't want to be with people who were just trying to make some money and had no desire to become an actual nurse.

5) Read the research on simulation. It is an effective and smart way to learn clinical skills in the classroom. Sure, they are different than real humans and you have to adjust when you go to do them in the hospital. However, that's what a good nurse does. No Foley you place will be the same. EVER. You learn the basic skills and the right technique and then you adapt. Simulations help you to think critically, adapt, and learn the basics before you are dealing with a real human that you can't just "give it a shot" on.

6) Global excursions are optional. Period. Don't go if you don't want to. No one will force you to pay for it or go.

7) A lot of the students are NOT wealthy. It's the reason we have a ton of scholarship programs and loans. I would say 80-90% of my class had at least one loan or scholarship.

8) Durham is really not that bad. It's not ugly or "sprawled." I honestly miss it. Duke Forest is gorgeous, campus is amazing, there are some really cool restaurants and the "trendy" coffee houses are great for studying and less expensive than Starbucks. There are also a lot of apartment options that are affordable and nice. I never felt in danger and there was plenty of transportation around campus. I took the Duke bus from my apartment straight to the medical center. It was on time and there was an app that told you exactly when it would arrive.

9) Get your BSN. It's not fear mongering. Hospitals do not hire associate's degrees much at all anymore. Duke definitely does not. Just do the BSN and get it over with. You will have many more job opportunities and you won't have to fit the BSN program into your life afterwards. There is a huge difference in quality and many people have said that they can tell the difference between a Duke nurse and other nurses. And outside of the system I have felt well prepared and able to enter the job force with confidence. Duke gave me so many unique experiences and an amazing educational experience. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I love Duke so much I'm currently working on my PNP there. I know JuanMartin has had a different experience but I wanted you all to know that it's not the experience of everyone and others feel differently. I love/loved Duke and I completely disagree with his post.

[Sunshinexoxo1991]

I completely agree! Obviously, I haven't started the program yet, but you don't get the title of being the #2 nursing school in the nation by being comparable to a community college. And aside from that, the director of the program told us day one at Duke days if you want to do bedside nursing and be an RN the rest of your life go somewhere much cheaper, clearly you can get in. If you want to go to grad school you're pretty much a shoe-in with Duke attached to your name. Maybe you're not a shoe-in at Duke specifically, but you WILL get into a program somewhere. And as for the comment made about the professors not being knowledgeable, they are writing the text books for nursing classes across the nation, I think they know what they're doing. There are thousands of people who would love to be a student at Duke and if you don't think it's worth it, don't go. Save yourself thousands of dollars and go somewhere you find yourself better suited and give that spot to someone who feels just as honored as I do to be part of such a wonderful school.

[JuanMartin]

Graduating from Duke gives you a tremendous edge in and outside of the Duke System”

And how do we know this is true? From hearsay? From a desire to be true? It's definitely true Duke ABSN grads seem to have a very easy time landing jobs at Duke Hospital, usually at the same site as their preceptorship, but it's also fairly common to see people landing those same positions from schools outside of the system that don't even reach the top 50 in the nursing rankings. When I meet new hires working the floor who just came out of Watts, Durham Tech, or some school I've never heard of, it really raises doubts about whether or not there is anything special about the fact that I went to a best nursing school”. If it really mattered you'd think that every other nurse would be from Duke, Johns Hopkins, Penn, or even UNC but it's just not the case. Heck, the best nurses I've met working at Duke have all come from places like East Carolina University. I just can't see any reason to believe that Duke has given me ANY edge…..other than at my preceptor site, but then I think I'd be a complete sucker to stay and get paid so far below national average just for the convenience of staying in Durham, a city I do not like.

Like you I feel personally prepared for a job interview” but I really don't think Duke has contributed to my overall readiness for such a thing. I do think that my prior experience, education, and clinical time have contributed to this. Maybe I'm unique, maybe I had more to bring to the table before I ever even came here? I don't know, all I can say for sure is that this claim doesn't apply to me in slightest. What am I going to say at my interview that my time in the classroom at Duke would prepare me for? Massage the fundus”? Maybe? Nothing?


The faculty are NOT amazing at Duke. Maybe from a certain perspective, one where in you're used to people making up a lecture off the cuff (anecdotal stories), or filling up classroom time with youtube clips, or arts and crafts time, or inane group discussions, or games? But I had a very different academic experience from that and I came here with very high expectations, expectations fitting of the name, the reputation, and of course, the price tag…..what a let down. These aren't professionals. These aren't REALLY professors of any variety, though I know they are payed to be and we're supposed to call them all doctor-so-and-so” and nod at every crazy-half baked idea that comes out of their mouth. I'll say this, if you're a grown adult and you don't see how stupid or pointless talking about Erickson's Developmental Stages” is then I'm afraid there's no point in going further. 

There's nothing to learn in nursing school…..there's literally NO course content, every class says the same inane nonsense that should have everyone in the room rolling their eyes or just walking out: HOB at 30 degrees, make sure there's suction in the room, perform the 5-12 rights (depending on who's asking), social determinants of health”, something about spirituality, and for good measure let's thrown in the word holistic” like it actually means something! That's a nursing education” in a nut shell. Who needs faculty for this? At Duke prices?

I mean, it's true that they will personally assist you” as in interact with you” and write your letters” but then that's their job! Every professor at every institution across the country does exactly the same thing…..so how is Duke different? And why does that justify paying so much to go here? To learn pretty much nothing? At a school where students don't have to even buy the assigned textbooks to get an ‘A' ?

Duke's pass rate the last I checked was 98%, not 99%, but again, why does that even matter?Why would you pay 4-5 times as much money (400% more money) for less than 10% advantage on a test that you are almost certainly going to pass the FIRST time and which you can simply take a SECOND time failing that? That's so inordinately lopsided that it defies all reason. It makes no sense. You don't spend $1000.00 to fix a bird house, you don't pay a fortune to learn a job that someone coming from a freaking community college can do just as well as you upon graduating.

You didn't want to be with people just trying to make money but people who wanted to be nurses?” Why in the world do you think people become nurses? Do you really think anyone is at Duke because they have plans to work for FREE? Everyone becomes a nurse because they need to make money and that makes a lot of sense because everyone needs a place to live and food to eat and those things aren't free.

Read the research”….on man. Okay, if it's true that rubber mannequins can help nurses become better nurses then you really need to explain why outside of referring me to literature” that may or may not even exist. And realize that it takes a lot more than some silly nursing journal article making the claim that rubber mannequins are useful for this to be a hard fact. I bet I can stumble around and find just as many articles that say just the opposite or something inconclusive about rubber mannequins. I'll say again that NOTHING about those mannequins aids students in learning the right technique” (as if there were one way to do ANY of the skills we learn) because they simply don't sufficiently approximate reality. If you have to adjust” your skills (in other words, unlearn everything you thought you knew) then why not just bypass the wrong way altogether and learn how to REALLY perform these skills? Also, if it's true that every single Foley experience is completely different then why talk about learning the skill? If every experience is different then by definition it ought to be impossible to actually learn the skill in question. What you said makes no sense. Or maybe you were just being hyperbolic? 



Simulations help you think critically”…..in what way, exactly?



Global excursions are optional. I guess that's the best we can say about those. 



A lot of student are NOT wealthy, but let's be honest, most of them plainly ARE. I know this because I have access to Facebook and I pay attention. Most people who can't afford Duke are smart enough to simply not come here, but sometimes Duke is the only option for some people and that's the shame I think. When people feel obligated to come here because it's supposed to be so special and excellent” and they take out all these loans to get paid a lot less than $50,000 a year. It's not like you're becoming a lawyer or a doctor or an engineer…. maybe you hope to be an NP? or CRNA? But when? After you pay for more school!?



Durham is not for everyone, that's for sure. I bet some people really like it, I bet some people are from Cleveland, but I personally don't like it at all. It IS sprawled out, there's no question about that. It takes like 20 minutes and two different freeways to get to the mall here. Have you tried walking to the grocery store? Have you tried walking anywhere here? I can get to DPAC from where I am, and some restaurants downtown, but it's like over a mile to a grocery store and like 2 miles to DUSON. I mean it's not called Raleigh-Durham” for nothing. They call it that because everything you want is spread out all over the 3 towns: Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh….not one, not two, but three. It's a drivers paradise, I guess.

And it's not safe here. I was chased in my parking garage the other day. My friend had a drive by shooting at his apartment complex. We get these text alert messages every few weeks about some new armed robbery on or near campus….campus! Let's be real here, Durham can be really, really rough in some places…..it's not a post-apocolyptic nightmare or anything, but it's a lot worse than most places. 



Starbucks charges $2.00 for a small coffee. Parker and Otis down the street charges like $3.25. Cocoa Cinnamon charges like $2.50. Mad Hatters like damn near $4.00 if you don't think to get a togo cup (because they assume refills). Durham is an outrageously expensive place when it comes to food and drink. I don't know why you believe otherwise but you're way off here. 

You don't NEED a BSN. It IS fear mongering and you're just adding to the fear. Many hospitals DO hire people with associates degrees, in fact Duke still does…. only they require that after so many years you upgrade to an RN, which anyone can do online for a small fee. They only difference between an RN and a ADN is bunch of ******** like leadership” and community health”.

You claim there's a huge difference in quality but how do you know this to be true? Even Duke doesn't care, Duke hires people who went to no name local institutions all the time!

The one thing I think we can say about Duke is that it is a really cool name and that it's fun to tell the family back home that we're Duke students and that we're #1 in basketball and all elite and super special or whatever. If you can afford this then, FINE, buy all the t-shirts and sweaters you want and tell the world that you're a Duke student if it makes you feel awesome. As for me? I don't care about that stuff, I just wanted to be a nurse, and I feel cheated. I'll go as far as to say that I felt abused coming here. Let that be my warning, then, to anyone who's ambivalent, to anyone who's riding the fence and wondering but is it really worth it”? From my point of view? Unequivocally NO.

BTW Duke is NOT the #2 nursing school in the nation = /

And our professors do NOT write the textbooks for our classes. Not a single one of my professors wrote a text we were assigned…..btw, a lot of people don't even buy the textbooks because you don't need them. I DID. I was stupid there too. 





[Sunshinexoxo1991]

No one is holding a gun to your head and making you stay, you're clearly pretty miserable, so leave or transfer. Tuition is a little over $19,000 a semester, take that X however many semesters you have left and put that towards somewhere cheaper. Seriously, no sense in putting yourself more in debt for something you don't feel is worth it.

I personally think you are an outlier and most people who attend Duke definitely love, appreciate and embrace all Duke has to offer. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but seriously, if you're so miserable change your circumstance.

[JuanMartin]

The ABSN program is only 15 months and it took me a while to finally come to grips with the reality that it was never going to be a good academic experience. At this point it's just too late to transfer anywhere, but believe me the thought has come into my mind many time. It's just not feasible.....

And given the fact that Duke is supposed to be emblematic of the best of academic nursing, it seems futile. If Duke is this bad, then why should I expect it to be any better anywhere else? The entire culture that permeates nursing school is broken, not just this one school. So at this point the best I can do is endure it for a little while longer, take the NCLEX, and get on with my life.

I am definitely NOT an out-liar, though I am certainly more vocal than most. There are many students here that are disappointed in the program. I'd say roughly a quarter of students I've talked to would consider coming to Duke a mistake. But I can't say for sure. I can only give you my impression from my conversations......and there are plenty of people who just absolutely love being here. I bet some people love Cleveland. Some people like the Insane Clown Posse. I'm just not one of them.

It's not ALL bad here: the weather is awesome, campus is very pretty (not the best ever or anything), the nursing school itself just looks fantastic (great new building), Durham has really good food (expensive, but really good), the DPAC is awesome, a lot of nursing faculty are friendly (not all), working clinical rotations at Duke or UNC is a GREAT experience, our clinical instructors (who didn't go to Duke) are in my experience wonderful, the lab instructors in the CND are also wonderful. The uniform is really cool. Duke has a lot cool events and great sports experiences. etc.

I think that given the likelihood that pretty much ALL nursing schools are terrible then I really don't think there is any reason to not come here if you or your rich parents can afford it. If you can afford it then you can come and, I believe, at the very least, have a very good time and make new friends. It's like a big blue sorority house or something. I personally don't care about all that. I don't want to have fun, really, I've had enough already, but under different circumstance maybe I would have loved it.

[amzytubies]

I applied for the fall 2016 ABSN program. Does anybody know how the GPA Is calculated? My first degree GPA from Nigeria is 3.54 and i took 2 classes in california,which the GPA is 3.85. But each time i check my application status, i see a "TO DO" —GRE. I have called the DUke SON and they said, "once my GPA is calculated and i meet the requirement for GRE waiver, it will be waived". So who knows how long it takes them to do this.

I am yet to take the psychology prerequisite, but all other prerequisite are in my 1st degree( my 2nd year courses in 2010). I love Duke and i wish i"m considered for admission.

How effective is their need-based scholarship?

[Sunshinexoxo1991]

Honestly I can't remember about the GPA, I know I had the minimum to waive the GRE, so if you have that, don't worry about it. You'll be fine. I got the full amount of the need based scholarship, it is $7500 per semester for 4 semesters, so $30k total. Leaving you with $50k remaining. Ive heard it's really hard to get the scholarship, so don't expect to get it unless you make well below the poverty line and can file as an independent student (over 24 years old.) you can PM me if you have any more questions! I hope you get in :-)

[tinadonnie]

I submitted the tax stuff for last year and the financial department said my tax was too high so I didn't qualify for the need-base scholarship. GRE has been cancelled for all the applicants so no worries about that part any more~

[tinadonnie]

Is there any online access code for each textbook in this program? If I buy new textbooks, will the access code be attached to the book? I want to do more practice~

[amzytubies]

Honestly I can't remember about the GPA, I know I had the minimum to waive the GRE, so if you have that, don't worry about it. You'll be fine. I got the full amount of the need based scholarship, it is $7500 per semester for 4 semesters, so $30k total. Leaving you with $50k remaining. Ive heard it's really hard to get the scholarship, so don't expect to get it unless you make well below the poverty line and can file as an independent student (over 24 years old.) you can PM me if you have any more questions! I hope you get in :-)

i used the net price calculator and arrived at this. Does it always apply? My husband makes less than 15000 in a year, and i aint working. I just cannot afford duke if i don't get enough assistance, although i really love duke.

Does it mean we have to submit 2015 tax paper?

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[passion_fruit]

I was pulled from the waitlist on Nov 17, but sadly I had to decline the offer of admission last night. Duke was my first choice, but even with the full amount of the need based scholarship ($30,000 total), I still can't afford to go. After much thought, I had to let Duke go. I must say, it made me really sad. If my financial situation improves in the near future, I will definitely applying for their MSN program. I hope those who are on the waitlist will hear from Nora soon. Good luck everyone!

[tinadonnie]

I really feel bad for you. Hopefully we will see you for MSN program some years later